A CAR recovery company has joined forces with Stockport Council to remove abandoned vehicles from the streets, as part of Operation Springclean.

On average ten cars are removed from roads, parks, rivers and cemeteries in Stockport each day and 1,000 are removed in a year.

Linda Unsworth, from Motor Move, breakdown and recovery specialists, based at Borough Park on Stanley Street in Stockport, started the business 22 years ago with Phil Taylor, and now they work closely with the council and police.

The firm operates 24 hours a day and if they get a call out from the council they are ready to pick up an abandoned car within half an hour.

Linda said: "Between January and March we have removed 64 cars. There is an amnesty until the end of April where a person can pay just £12.50 so a car that is not wanted can be picked up and disposed of properly in an environmentally friendly way."

"Sometimes the abandoned vehicles we pick up are burnt out, used in crime, or just left in the street full of old clothes and other things people don't want. And it can be quite dangerous so we have specially trained staff."

"It really is annoying people abandon vehicles because we all pay our road taxes and then some people just dump their cars without a care."

"Also if the cars are left on the road they are vandalised, windows are smashed and burnt-out. Not only that but children are curious and it can be very dangerous for them. It is quite frightening to think about."

"We have removed a lot of vehicles from very strange places, the top floor of Merseyway car park, a cemetery in Romiley, parks, roads, anywhere really."

"Caravans are also left on the road, motorcycles, trailers - you name it we have had it. We have even brought in big safes and a go kart that had been stolen from Stockport College."

It only takes 30 seconds to crush a car, all the fluids have to be drained out of it first and the tyres have to be taken off.

Linda said: "It is a very involved and expensive process. 20 cars a day can be crushed at the site in Stalybridge and then cubed in Manchester. The metal can then be re-used for various things."